Penny Mordaunt Says Voters Want Theresa May To Put 'Meat On The Bones' Of Her Brexit Plan

This entry was posted by Nealc on February 11, 2018 at 12:57 pm

Voters want to see Theresa May show “vision” and put “some meat on the bones” of her Brexit plans, a cabinet minister has said.

The government will bid to regain the initiative with a series of top level speeches by the prime minister and senior cabinet colleagues in the coming weeks.

May is set to make two key note addresses and arch Brexiteers, Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox will also set out their agendas.

However Chancellor Philip Hammond is not slated to take part leading to accusations he has been silenced by Downing Street.

It comes as one senior Tory MP told May to “go down fighting” rather than cave to pressure from so-called hard Brexiteers including Jacob Rees-Mogg.

International Development secretary Penny Mordaunt, who campaigned for Brexit, denied on Sunday morning the Conservative Party was not being ripped apart by divisions over Brexit

“No one thought it was going to be a walk in the park,” she told the Andrew Marr programme. “The parliamentary party and the cabinet are behind the prime minister. We are tying to get the best deal possible for the UK.”

She added: “What the public want, is they want the vision and they want some meat on the bones, and this what they are going to get.”

Asked if she was still “chipper” about Brexit given its difficulties, Mordaunt said: “I am.”

David Gauke meanwhile has rejected accusations that Hammond had been gagged. “The chancellor has hardly been silent on this matter,” the justice secretary secretary told ITV’s Peston on Sunday.

“He’s not part of the set of speeches that have been outlined today, but that doesn’t mean the chancellor is not expressing his views both internally in the cabinet conversations but also externally. He is setting out his views.

“I don’t think there’s anything in this, that there is any kind of plot to gag a particular faction of ministers. I don’t think that’s a fair characterisation at all.”

Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative chair of the Commons health committee, this morning that May should “set out the case for alignment & a close relationship with EU in the National interest.

“Better for PM to go down fighting the case for what is the best for the economy of all parts of the UK. The indecision is no longer acceptable,” she tweeted.

“The Mogglodytes plotting to oust the PM unless she bows to their demands need to face the reality that there is no Parliamentary majority for their disruptive, disastrous hard Brexit.”

In the first of the speeches on Wednesday, Boris Johnson will call for national unity over withdrawal.

This will be followed on Saturday by May detailing the “security partnership” the UK wants to maintain with the EU.

Brexit Secretary David Davis and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox will also set out their agendas,

Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, who backed Remain in the referendum, will also deliver a speech.

May will then round off the process in an address setting out how she sees the overall relationship between Britain and Brussels after withdrawal.